New Art Installation in Westlake Park Mimics a Sunny Day

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The sky is a dreary gray, the rain keeps falling and you may be feeling the winter blues. Luckily the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) has a solution to help ease your seasonal depression. Westlake Park is now home to a new art installation called Blue Sky Passage, designed by DSA employee Erica Bush. This installation, occupying the interior of a rented shipping container, creates the illusion of a beautiful sunny day. Constructed with backlit Plexiglas panels and printed with photographs by Gregg M. Erickson depicting summer scenes of  Eastern Cascades mountain Goat Peak, the shipping container gives visitors the feeling that they have been transported to a sunny day. “The shipping container that houses the piece is symbolic of a seasonal time machine,” Bush said in a press release. “The piece itself accentuates the stark contrast between the seasons here in the Pacific Northwest — subdued and dreary in the winter and full of bright boundless skies in the summer months.” The installation will be up and running through Saturday, February 6.

Ronalda McDonald House Charities of Western Washington & Alaska and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) have announced they will expand their current partnership to open the first ever Ronald McDonald House in Alaska. The new Ronald McDonald House will occupy one floor of a new six-story ANTHC housing facility (with a connecting skybridge to the existing Alaska Native Medical Center) that will open in early 2017. According to a press release, the new House “will primarily house women with high-risk pregnancies, but will also be available to pediatric patients of the medical center.”  The Ronald McDonald House Charities notes the new facility will be located in Anchorage and will provide a “home-away-from-home” for new mothers. Amenities available to those staying at the 34-room facility include private rooms furnished with full-size beds, sleeper chairs and bathrooms, common areas with a kitchen and library, workout areas and cafeteria, and volunteer-run activities such as cooking classes and craft circles. If you’d like to help fund this new facility go to rmhcseattle.org.

Beer lovers rejoice! Rainier Beer is returning to the Northwest. According to the Washington Beer Blog, Rainier Beer, a subsidiary of Pabst Brewing Company, is currently brewed in California, but will begin to produce Rainier Pale Mountain Ale at Redhook brewery in Woodinville. Greg Deuhs, PBC’s Master Brewer stated in a press release on Monday that they “are thrilled to be returning to Rainier’s home state and to begin brewing at this wonderful Seattle facility within sight of Mount Rainier. We are excited to revive many historic Rainier beers from our archives–starting with Rainier Pale Mountain Ale, which will be offered in the iconic 16-ounce Rainier ‘pounder’ glass bottle.”

Seattle-based hand blown votive and drinking glass company Glassybaby will close its stores today (January 13) in honor of a $4 million dollar charity milestone. The company has contributed 10 percent of its revenue to more than 350 charitable organizations that support hope and healing for people, animals and the Earth. Some of these organizations include The American Cancer Society Road to Recovery Program, Lucille Packard Stanford Children’s Hospital Play Cart, GLIDE, and Conservation International’s Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. In celebration of Glassybaby’s accomplishment, store employees will spend their day off volunteering at local charities in order to give back to the community. “We believe–and the numbers prove–that you can run a successful business, give back in an impactful way and build a strong community,” Glassybaby ceo Bill Cummings said in the press release.